Understanding "Culture"

 

The world of the early Hebrew.

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

A member has asked about the meaning of the term "culture", and she would like to know "what constitutes a culture?"

When we speak of a "culture" we must recognize that people adapt to the environment, which means that the culture will reflect its environment. Desert cultures around the world have much in common. River cultures around the world have much in common. Coastal populations share many common features. The same is true for the populations of the Artic. This is one of the more profound observations of Franz Boas, the American anthropologist, whose initial studies were done among the Eskimos.

Not surprisingly, the earliest human populations lived near major water sources such a rivers and lakes. Genesis describes Eden as a vast well-watered region extending from the Upper Nile to the Tigris and Euphrates. This is the region inhabited by the early Hebrew (4000-2000 BC) who dispersed into the areas shown on this map. The oldest known site of Horite Hebrew worship was at Nekhen on the Nile.

They traveled along the rivers that interconnected in Africa during the Africa Humid Period, also known as the African Aqualithic. The rock paintings that are found across what is today the Sahara reveal that the region was once green and watered. These images show people swimming and fishing.

Noah's homeland was in the region of Lake Chad about 6000 years ago. This is the only place on earth said to be Noah's homeland by the local populations. They call it Borno or Benue, both meaning "land of Noah". The local Kanari people call Lake Chad Buhar Nuhu, meaning "Sea of Noah". The now dry Sahara was much wetter then and the Chad Basin overflowed. Indeed, from Noah's perspective, all of his territory (eretz) would have appeared to be under water.

A distinctive trait of the Hebrew marriage and ascendancy pattern drove their dispersion. Hebrew sent-away sons were to move away from the Hebrew ruler's proper heir and establish territories of their own.

Noah was probably a sent-away son. His Hebrew ancestors likely lived in the Nile Valley. Some of those Hebrew ancestors may have been cave dwellers living along the Nile River.

His culture was that of the paleolakes of Africa. Archaeological research has identified various populations that lived at paleolakes near Noah's territory. See Paul Sereno's findings at Gobero. 

Paleolake populations were fishing and boating cultures. This Dufuna black mahogany boat was found in 1987 in Yobe State (Nigeria) buried 16 feet under clays and sands which alternating sequence showed evidence of deposition in standing and flowing water. The dugout is 8000 years old. By comparison, Egypt's oldest boat is 5000 years old.

The 8000-year Dufuna boat found near Noah's homeland.

Peter Breunig (University of Frankfurt) specializes in African archaeology. He has written this description of the Dufuna boat: “The bow and stern are both carefully worked to points, giving the boat a notably more elegant form”, compared to “the dugout made of conifer wood from Pesse in the Netherlands, whose blunt ends and thick sides seem crude”.

Breunig added, "Judging by stylistic sophistication, Breunig reasons that, “It is highly probable that the Dufuna boat does not represent the beginning of a tradition, but had already undergone a long development, and that the origins of water transport in Africa lie even further back in time.”

Related reading: Why Nekhen is Anthropologically Significant; The Hebrew Were a Caste, Features of the Hebrew Social Structure; Some Hebrew Were Troglodytes; BIBLICAL ANTHROPOLOGY: Horite and Sethite Mounds; The Distinction between Race and Ethnicity

Remembering Ernest L. Schusky

Ernest L Schusky (1931-2019) was born in Portsmouth, Ohio, the only son of Lenora Davis Schusky and Ernest Schusky. His B.A. degree was from Miami University, Ohio; his PhD degree in anthropology from the University of Chicago. 

He was an active member of St. Francis United Methodist Church in Tucson, Arizona, and an associate member of the First United Methodist Church in Collinsville, Illinois.

Schusky began his academic teaching career at South Dakota State University in 1958. In 1960 he joined the new campus of Southern Illinois University, Carbondale and developed the program in anthropology. He retired as emeritus professor in 1993. 

His professional career included a Fulbright in 1977 at Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea, as well as a summer Fulbright in India. He spent a sabbatical year at the London School of Economics.

Lectureships included National Science Foundation invitations at Cornell College, Huron College, St. Xavier and the University Chicago and a semester at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, where the family lived in a historic log cabin on campus. 

Schusky was a fellow of the American Anthropology Association and the Society for Applied Anthropology and served as President of Central States Anthropology Society.

His Manual for Kinship Analysis has been considered by some anthropologists to be one of the most significant books of the 20th century. Originally published in 1964 by Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, this volume has been used by students as an introduction to classifying and analyzing the kinship systems of the world. This second edition introduces in a simple, step-by-step style the methods of componential analysis as well as determining the structure of Iroquois, Crow-Omaha, and other kinship systems. A good supplemental text for Introductory Anthropology courses.

Schusky's scholarly research and writing emphasized Sioux Indians (his PhD dissertation studied the Lower Brule Sioux in South Dakota). The Right To Be Indian (1965) is his most reprinted work and Introducing Culture was widely adopted as an introductory text and had four editions. Several of his texts have been published in Korean, Japanese, and Portuguese. Other titles included The Forgotten Sioux and Introduction to Social Science.

In retirement, Schusky began writing fiction based on his lifelong commitment to Native American history and culture. His first novel, Journey to the Sun, described life at Cahokia Mounds ca.1,000 A.D. Other titles include Ride the Whirlwind (Pueblo Indians), Return to Beauty (Navajo) and Too Many Miracles, about the life of a Papago Indian Schusky had interviewed as a graduate student at the University of Arizona. 

Ernest L.Schusky died on December 12, 2019 at age 88.

Archaic Humans Stored Marrow-rich Deer Bones

Qesem Cave

Tel Aviv University researchers, in collaboration with scholars from Spain, have uncovered evidence of the storage and delayed consumption of animal bone marrow at Qesem Cave near Tel Aviv, the site of many major discoveries from the late Lower Paleolithic period some 400,000 years ago.

The research provides direct evidence that early Paleolithic people saved animal bones for up to nine weeks before feasting on them inside Qesem Cave.

The study, which was published in the October 9 issue of Science Advances, was led by Dr. Ruth Blasco of TAU's Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations and Centro Nacional de Investigación Sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH) and her TAU colleagues Prof. Ran Barkai and Prof. Avi Gopher. It was conducted in collaboration with Profs. Jordi Rosell and Maite Arilla of Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV) and Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES); Prof. Antoni Margalida of University of Lleida, University of Bern, and the Institute for Game and Wildlife Research (IREC); and Prof. Daniel Villalba of University of Lleida.

Read more here and here.

Humans Descend From African Ancestors

Archaic human footprint found in Ileret, Kenya dating to 1.5 million years

Several sets provide evidence of males travelling in groups.

All non-Africans alive today can trace their roots back to ancient humans who left Africa between about 72,000 and 50,000 years ago. That’s the conclusion of three separate groups of scientists. They all published new studies online September 21 in Nature.

These studies examined DNA from different groups of modern people. The earliest human explorers left Africa in a single wave of migration, each study concluded. Then those explorers bred with Neanderthals and spread across the world. On that much, all these teams agree. But many details of that history remain unanswered.

Scientists often have wondered when humans first left Africa. And did it happen once, twice or many times? Archaeological evidence from modern humans in Asia dates back 80,000 years. And human DNA from remains of a Neanderthal woman in what’s now Siberia suggested some humans left Africa more than 110,000 years ago.

Read more here.

Related reading: Artifacts of Great Antiquity; Facts About Human Origins

How Humans Are Different

It is evident to anthropologists that humans are unique among the other living creatures on Earth. Our uniqueness is expressed in many ways. Here are a few examples.

The Conscience

Charles Darwin said that "blushing is the most peculiar and the most human of all expressions." No other mammal has this trait.

We blush when we are ashamed or embarrassed. But what makes us feel ashamed? We humans have something called a conscience. The conscience acts as a moral compass. It tells us when we are morally right and when we are morally wrong. Some consider this to be a mark of being in the image and likeness of the Creator (Genesis 2).


The Spoken Word

Humans use spoken language to inform each other about what is on our minds. We have the ability to describe things in great detail. We are able to articulate our feelings, to argue, and to discuss matters of importance. No other animal has this gift.

We make sense of the world by talking about it. We give names to things, just as Adam was told to name the living creatures in Eden.


The Imagination

Humans are imaginative creatures. This is expressed in many ways: art, symbolic communication, and story telling. We speak of events past, present, and future and we elaborate, adding details that make the story more interesting or funny. 

Jesus used stories, called "parables" to teach people about God and the Kingdom of Heaven. Philosophers use moralistic stories to teach ethics and moral behavior.  They hope that such instruction will help students to be productive citizens who contribute to the common good of their society.

Awareness of our Mortality

Humans are conscious of death. We know that humans die and that each of us will experience this reality. This recognition influences how we live each day. Some regard life as a gift and take care of themselves and others. Some regard human life a cheap, because, after all is said and done, we must die. 

Humans react differently to the reality of death. Some seek consolation in pleasures like food, alcohol, sex (hedonism). Others seek to be less interested in these in order to dedicate their time and effects to things that they believe are pleasing to God: humility, generosity, kindness, forgiveness, etc. These are people who look for "the life of the world to come." They believe that in that life, there will no longer be death and every tear will be wiped away. 

Homo Ludens (Playful Creature)

Humans are the only living creatures that have the ability to mentally stand apart from themselves to see the humor of our condition. We are able to crack jokes about our flaws and behaviors.

We are able to play games. We invent games to entertain ourselves. We laugh, dance, chase each other around, and strategize about how to gain an advantage over the other players.

Cultural Anthropology

Alice C. Linsley

Cultural anthropology is a science that focuses on human societies and cultures, and their development over time. It investigates the social structures and patterns that characterize a community, a clan, a caste, or a society.

Humans live within structures like the nuclear family, marriage traditions, gender roles, hierarchies, traditional ceremonies, annual festivals, etc. Some of these are human in origin, but others are dictated by environments in which people live and by fixed patterns in Creation: male-female; night-day; seasonal changes, the east-west solar arc, etc. The Apostle Paul refers to such fixed patterns in Romans 1:20:

"For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse."

Biblical anthropology focuses on biblical populations. Most of these populations are in the same genetic group: Haplogroup R1b, shown on the map above. These populations share a common ancestry linguistically and genetically. Artifacts found among these populations also indicate common technologies, objects, and symbols.

One example is the six prong or six petal solar symbol which is called by different names depending on the location. Among the Slavs it is called Perun's Flower.

These are symbols of the High God among the Baltic Slavs. Svetovid is related to the words Sventevith and Zvantewith. These words share the same root word svętъ, meaning saint or holy. Svetovid means "Holy Lord." The word vid in Latin refers to seeing. It is as variant spelling of vit, meaning lord or ruler. There likely is a connection between the lord's oversight and the idea of divine appointment to rule.

Among the Hebrew it is called the Merkaba. Consider all these places where the same image appears among the R1b peoples.

This is the Black Obelisk found in ancient Kalhu (Nimrud/Nimrod). It shows King Jehu/Yehu of Israel bowing before the Assyrian King Shalmaneser III after the Assyrian defeat of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The obelisk dates to 841 B.C. Note that the six-prong solar symbol appears in two places: on the winged celestial creature directly above Yehu and above the sheaves of wheat presented as tribute by one of Yehu's priests.

Nok figurine found in Nigeria.

Note the solar mark on the ruler's forehead indicating divine appointment by "overshadowing." A solar horse mark was found of the cheek of the Ur David mummy (1000 BC) buried in a pyramid in the Tarum Valley of China.

Funeral stele found in Arabia.

TNT stele found in Carthage, North Africa

Grave marker in Banais, Israel

The Magdala Stone in Galilee, Israel

Ossuary of the High Priest Joseph Caiaphas. 

He organized the plot to kill Jesus.

The Star (Sun) of the Alps

"Il fiore a sei petali" in Italy

The same solar symbol appears on the top right seal.

These were found in Spain.

Related reading: Haplogroups of Interest to Biblical Anthropologists; The Social Structure of the Biblical Hebrew; Conscious of Our Uniqueness as Humans; Understanding the Science of Biblical Anthropology, Correctly Identifying Biblical Populations; Ethnic and Cultural Diversity in the Bible

Homo Naledi: another member of the human family

Archaic human bones found deep in a cave in South Africa show the full range of human physical features and are dated between 335,000 and 236,000 years ago.

The bones found in the Dinaledi Chamber represent the largest collection of human bones found in Africa. The bones are of 15 individuals, including infants, children and adults. (For more, read about the Rising Star Expedition.)

The Naledi hand and modern human hand are virtually identical, as can bee seen below.

The cave appears to be a site of ritual burial.

Related reading: Fully Human From the Beginning; Genesis on Human Origins; Facts About Human Origins; Was Lucy Fully Human?; Overview of Human Origins

Tracing the Roots of Our Biblical Faith

The phonemes found in modern languages have their point of origin in the same place in Africa that genetics identifies as the birthplace of humans.

All the practices and beliefs of the ancient Hebrews have their origin in Africa. This includes circumcision, the male priesthood, animal sacrifice, divine protection through the blood, the veneration (not worship) of ancestors, and belief in a supreme Creator assisted by lesser divine powers, like angels.

The Biblical worldview and religious practices of the ancient Hebrew (Habiru) reflect those of the common ancestors of the Hebrew, the Khoisan, the San, the Ngunis and the Bantu. All emerge from the same Mt-DNA genetic root, Haplogroup L. 

L is the DNA macro-haplogroup that is at the root of the human phylogenetic tree. It traces humans from the so-called Mitochondrial Eve (not the same as Biblical Eve). Mitochondrial Eve lived in Africa about 200,000 years ago.

Abraham's ancestors listed in Genesis 4, 5, 10 and 11 are in Haplogroup R1b, which emerged out of macro-haplogroup L.

The highest density of R1b in Africa is in

Noah's homeland in the region of Lake Chad.

So how old is the Biblical worldview? It is the oldest worldview. This is supported genetics, linguistics and archaeology.

Here is an important principle in cultural anthropology: The more widespread the culture trait the older it is.

One of the oldest known practices is red ocher burials. Red ochre or hematite was mined in the Lebombo Mountains of southern Africa many thousands of years ago. It represents blood covering or divine protection. (The study of blood is called hematology.)

H.B.S. Cooke’s team discovered the 70,000 year grave of a small boy, buried with a seashell pendant and covered in red ochre in the Lebombo Mountains of southern Africa. This is the location of the oldest known mining operations in which thousands of mining tools have been found in tunnel mines. The custom of red ochre burial in the archaic world was widespread and therefore, it is recognized as an extremely old custom. Consider these archaeological discoveries:

A man buried 45,000 years ago at La Chapelle-aux-Saints in southern France, was packed in red ochre. 

“The Red Lady of Paviland” in Wales was buried in red ochre about 20,000 years ago. Her skeletal remains and burial artifacts are encrusted with the red ore.

P.L. Kirk reports that prehistoric Australian aboriginal burials reveal pink staining of the soil around the skeleton, indicating that red ochre had been sprinkled over the body. The remains of an adult male found at Lake Mungo in southeastern Australia were copiously sprinkled with red ochre. The Aborigines have priest who are called "red ochre men."

The ‘Fox Lady’ of Doini Vestonice, Czechoslovakia (near Russia) who was burial 23,000 years ago, was also covered in red ochre.

A 20,000 year old burial site in Bavaria reveals a thirty-year-old man entirely surrounded by a pile of mammoth tusks and nearly submerged in a mass of red ochre.

In the La Braña-Arintero cave in the Cantabrian Mountains of Spain, 7000 year old skeletons were discovered in 2006. The bodies were covered with red ochre.

Two flexed burials were found in Mehrgarh, Pakistan with a covering of red ochre on the bodies. These date from about 5000 BC.

Native Americans used red ochre for ceremonies and burials.

Related reading:  Haplogroups of Interest to Biblical Anthropologists

Fewer Women in Biblical Archaeology

I teach in a Christian School where only men teach the Bible classes. I have offered several electives over the past 7 years on books of the Bible and rarely have I had a female student in the class. It may be that females are getting the idea that the Bible is a "guy thing." On the other hand, my course on "Women of the Bible" which I teach at a women's college has had only one male student in three years. Perhaps women are more likely to engage if the course of study is tailored to them. This is true certainly true for Biblical Anthropology, the field I have been pioneering for 30+ years.


Read more here.